Questions were raised, why CIS? A lot of people, including myself, ponder why I chose that major.

Being born and raised in Yangon, a city in Myanmar(Burma), I was naïve about almost everything, partly because of a major corruption the education system had a few decades ago. Because of the brutal military dictatorship in Burma, the economic growth, technology advancement, and education were hindered. High school students only passed the examinations if they had good memorizing skills; to pass, one must memorize sentences by heart and reittereate them on examinations. Critical thinking or intellectual skills weren’t encouraged. Students with the best memorization skills were considered outstanding and were awarded. Moreover, during my childhood, almost all children were receiving medical education, being promised the highest salary and financial stability. I was born and raised in a middle-class family which includes a father (doctor) and mother (businesswoman). During my childhood, computers and internet were so scarce. Therefore, a huge desktop tower and a bulky monitor in the corner of my living room always looked amazingly strange to me when I was 4. It was my dad’s computer.

I was so fond of that desktop that I always crawled up to the computer desk, sat on my dad’s lap and drew paints in the computer, with my left hand on the mouse (I am left-handed).  I was stunned by how computers work. The functions of computer systems where I can add and subtract numbers in a split second were a huge innovation for me. I wanted to know more. I wanted to operate the database myself. My high energy and motivation popped up occasionally and were stopped regularly by the family. They wanted me to restrict my time spent with computers. Instead, they wanted me to study really hard to become a doctor, just like everybody else in the school — I had 2 rooms, my bedroom and study room. I had to spent 70% of each school day in the study room, memorizing words and sentences hard for the schools’ exams. I rarely had recreational times.

As I grew up, my desire to know about computers also grew rapidly by watching my family friends. They have studied abroad with computer science majors and are currently making a living in the industry. I can see how they love their career. I decided to pursue a computer science major as part of my career, although I do not have any computer background besides gaming and surfing the internet. I wanted to do business and the computer programming at the same time. Then, I found CIS major, where you can apply your computer knowledge into the business field.

When I passed the matriculation exam well enough to go to medical school, I had to struggle a lot to get permission from my parents to study abroad. After a significant amount of time, they finally agreed. I was over the moon. At first, my father was nervous about me leaving the family. However, because of all my efforts to show them my vision of combining business and computer science and how I will make a living, he eventually agreed. I have always wanted to carry on my family business in shoe retail and solve business and managerial issues by applying my computer skills. Our country is still in the process of developing and access to technology is limited. Therefore, we do not have any computerized systems in our family business. I wish to change that after I finish my degree and complete numerous internships in the United States. Moreover, since electronic commerce is used all over the world, I want to make improvements in the family business, especially in the area of the aforementioned e-commerce. I believe Computer Information Systems is the right tool for leverage in a marketplace. CIS helps me learn about networks, telecommunications, client-server technology and finally the internet.

Now, I am in Baruch college studying Computer Information Systems, which I am really grateful for. I finally have the opportunity to study what I am passionate about and I believe Baruch will help me achieve my goals. I will be diligently learning what Computer Information Systems offers.

“It is our mission to continue our efforts to support human rights, invest in our associates, give back to our communities, commit to environmental sustainability efforts, make responsible business decisions, stand for and achieve diversity and inclusion.”

This mission statement failed to portray miserably with what the Abercrombie & Fitch enterprise really did. The former CEO of A&F, Michael Stanton Jeffries told in a way that only “cool kids” and good-looking people can wear A&F merchandise. Moreover, the company hired only good-looking people as employees.  The company also burned the damaged remainders of its merchandise instead of giving them to charities. Such acts of body shaming and irresponsibility in corporate policy made the public mad. Corporate Social Responsibility is supposed to be kind and take care of the community. A&F did not live up to its mission and was disrespectful to the customers.

Volkswagen had a tremendous failure in CSR in the last decade. According to the article in the Forbes, the company tried to save its “embarrassingly low market shares” by creating “clean-diesel” market push in the United States to compete with environmentally friendly alternatives to hybrids like the Toyota Prius and Honda. Their diesel cars were equipped with defeat-device software that detected when emissions tests were taking place and cranked up pollution controls so that the cars would pass. This case was successfully investigated and revealed that Volkswagen cars emit far more poisonous nitrogen oxide than allowed by law. Volkswagen’s CEO, Martin Winterkorn, resigned and stated that he was not aware of such defrauding the United States government as well as violating the Clean Air Act. This wrongfully doing of Volkswagen cost a lot to the company, consumers, and the environment. Corporate Social Responsibility focuses on making safe products and minimizing pollution which Volkswagen failed to do so. In addition, the CEO, as well as the staffs from CSR departments, must have known what is going on within the company. In conclusion, Volkswagen failed miserably in CSR when it targets profits rather than the welfare of society.

This online article on Corporate policy in TOMS’ portrayed how that company focuses on its employees’ quality of life. Employees of TOMS’ have numerous work benefits such as flexible work schedules, no-meeting Mondays, 8 weeks of paid maternity leave and so on. The founder of TOMS’, Blake Mycoskie, added a number of programs and one of them is called “Happy Helping Hour which a number of charitable organizations collaborated with the employees of TOMS’ in helping for women in domestic abuse shelters. Another intriguing program by TOMS’ is called “Tomorrows project” where the employee who wins in giving the most charitable ideas what inspire him or her. From the article, I learned that the main focus of TOMS’ is social mission rather than making profits in the fashion business. Many for-profit companies like TOMS’ have philanthropic endeavors as a part of their mission. I found out that communities can depend on TOMS’ to help with social programs that make the lives of people in the community as well as its employees better. Businesses that strengthen their communities, as proponents of corporate social responsibilities argue, will grow stronger as their communities improve and TOMS’ is making it done.

https://www.inc.com/magazine/201605/leigh-buchanan/toms-employee-culture-programs.html

Advancement of the corporate social responsibility policies becomes an integral part of business activities and operations of every business unit. For a better understanding of the nature of this concept, it is highly recommended to look at the paper prepared by Baden (2016) “A Reconstruction of Carroll’s pyramid of corporate social responsibility”. He addresses all issues that should be covered by the notion of the CSR concerning protection of the interests of the stakeholders of the businesses in different areas. Finally, the Harvard Business Review Authors recently supported the interest of the academia to the investigation of the role of CSR strategies today by presenting new article “The Truth About CSR” written by Rangan and Chase.